


Shadows

by StoneCatcher



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Character Death, Gen, character exploration, relationship exploration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-15
Updated: 2013-08-15
Packaged: 2017-12-23 13:42:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/927165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StoneCatcher/pseuds/StoneCatcher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based kind of off MTMTE, but it's more of a general expansion and isn't specific to any plotlines, except for canon character death, etc.<br/>~~<br/>In the aftermath, Rodimus has a lot of questions, and no answers. Can you lose someone you're not sure if you ever really knew? Could two separate people have been one in the same? And who's fault was all of this, anyways?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LilBanshee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilBanshee/gifts).



> I don't know anymore  
> I don't even know a lot about this two nor do I ship them very hard but here. 
> 
> And please politely point out typos if you see em! Thanks!

He'd never say that he was living in the shadows, under the great bar set by those before him, because he wasn't. He made his own decisions, chose his own path, and bent the rules to fit his style. He always had, and probably always would.  
And this drove Magnus nearly ballistic, if someone as uptight and seemingly emotionless as Magnus could ever be described as ballistic. We could just say that it was... a habit of Rodimus's that the larger mech was never fond of. Yet somehow, the two found themselves, after a time, gently complying for each other. Though both stubborn, they each learned what it meant to bend, even if only a little.  
Some thought Rodimus was just lucky, others thought he was cursed, and more still thought he was just crazy. Maybe they were all right. Maybe they were all wrong. But it didn't change the fact that, upon his first meeting with Magnus, the two clashed like fire and water. Fast, changing, and illustrious versus cool, calm, and still. It was, to say none the least, explosive.

~~~

Everyone around them was convinced that, one day, Rodimus would be the death of Ultra Magnus, or vise versa.  
He wasn't, in the end.  
Or was he? 

He wasn't entirely sure, because the mech he knew, mech he'd come to, well, love... Did that person even exist? Had they ever? 

~~~

Rodimus could remember a time when the two of them couldn't stand two be in the same area without igniting something; both metaphorically and, on the catastropic occasion, literally. They were, in all senses, polar opposites. But, like so many things in the natural world, when the opposites had cooled down a bit, they began to attract. Compliment each other, and work together almost functionally. And they both learned something no one had ever expected: Compliance. Lenience.  
Or, as lenient as you can be when you're stubborn as a rock. 

Sometimes, Rodimus would find himself buckling down, and filling out obnoxious mounds of paperwork. Maybe, if he was feeling cheritable, he'd try, and usually fail, to organize his workspace. Once in a while, Magnus would overlook Rodimus's... difficult habits, if not entirely, partially. Slowly, their contrasting personalities chiseled away at the other, and while neither really ever changed in completeness, they were forever altered. 

~~~

Yes, this was most definitely all his fault. 

~~~

He'd been in shock, when Minimus Ambus had first revealed himself. Shock, horror, and anger mostly. Touched with a dash of betrayal. But, Rodimus tried to remember that inside, weren't they basically the same bot? Same rudimentary ideals, habits, etecera? He'd decided maybe, this would be okay. Maybe things could be possibly go back to being... slightly normal. Because to crave normalcy in the light of chaos was no unheard of thing, to long for solid ground when all around you was shaking was natural. 

Nothing would ever be normal. 

He'd been given so little time, so little time to decide if maybe he'd been right. If maybe Ambus and Magnus would've been the same, or at least close. Rodimus liked to believe that, in essence, they were. And sometimes, he didn't.  
Because sometimes he didn't want to be responsible for the deaths of those he cared for, once again.

~~~

He'd been the one to request that Magnus come on this voyage with him, on this quest. Yes, it was definitely all his fault. Rodimus sat on his berth, faceplates resting in his servos.  
It really couldn't be anyone else's fault.

~~~

It was funny, how used to each other's habits Rodimus and Ultra Magnus had become. It was predictable, reliable, measurable, like a solar cycle. You always knew that, after the darkness of night came the brilliance of daytime. It was, strangely soothing, how familiar and habitual they'd become.  
How, Rodimus had started out, as Hot Rod, almost trying to prove himself to the other mech. To prove his worth, his cunning, and so fourth. He didn't really know why, but that's how it worked. How Rodimus would sometimes do something for Magnus, whether to impress him or irritate him. Though it would be a lie to say everything he'd ever done was for the other, it would also be a lie to say Magnus was scarcely on his processor. 

Sometimes, it was the little things, doing paperwork here and there to make the other metaphorically smile, a mysterious scratch appearing on Magnus's desk, and watching in amusement as he spent the next several cycles trying to buff it out. Sometimes, it was big things, asking him to attend this voyage, taking responsibility, or a position on something. 

And that wasn't to say that all reactivity dissolved with familiarity, because it didn't. Because while opposites do often attract, relationships aren't as simple as magnets and just... clicking together. It's more like chemicals, or a sunset, or how when Magnus found himself watching Rodimus, in just the right light, he wasn't the same immature, explosive, loud mech he'd first met so long ago. It was more like how stars burn and flicker, and slowly, become something else entirely.  
It was beautiful, it was terrifying, it was a force of nature to be reckoned with. It was secure yet unstable, and looking back, Rodimus wouldn't've traded it for the world. 

Because they fought sometimes, and fought quite viciously. And while it rarely got physical, sharp and blunt exchanges both left their marks. Rodimus's cattiness, Magnus's up-front, harsh honesty, both were amazingly effective in battle, with words and with weapons. And while they tried to keep foes like the Cons at the receiving end of any abuse, sometimes a verbal war waged between the captain and his first office. Everybody always knew when the battle was started, and when it was finished. 

Sometimes one of them would sulk and brood for days, and oh how their methods, like their personalities, varied. Sometimes they'd work themselves into the medibay (usually Magnus), and other times they'd almost detatch themselves (usually Rodimus). But, they always, always moved past it. Came to an agreement, and went on with their lives together. 

~~~

Sometimes, it had been difficult, accepting their relationship, as quirky as it was. They were no novel, and while there wasn't a happily ever after, Ultra Magnus and Rodimus alike had both kind of hoped for a 'decently ever after'. “Acceptably ever after” or, “we're kind of compatible but sometimes I really want to knock your block off and other times I want to frag you senselessly into the berth ever after”.  
But not this.  
Not that Magnus, or Ambus, or whoever he was, could lament over what had happened. You can't mourn when you're dead. But your loved ones can. 

Maybe, Rodimus considered, he should've listened when others had said he wouldn't work well with Magnus. Maybe he should've stayed with one of his previous partners, maybe he should've stayed alone.  
At least he'd still be alive, the red mech thinks to himself, a mix of anger, sadness, and a strange twist of humour. Because there was no denying that this was his fault, that this was just a line of dominoes all set up by fate, and he'd been the push that finally knocked them over, Magnus at the end. Magnus taking the blow for... for...

~~~

Rodimus Prime lived in no one's shadow. He didn't aspire to be just like somebody else, though there were those he admired, and care for, deeply. He liked to think he made his own path, and controlled his own destiny. And he tried to believe that there was always a means to every end, and an end to every means. Sometimes it was hard to, but he tried. And, he always tried to live for himself, rather than focus his life on pleasing someone else.  
He did not live in Optimus's shadow, nor Magnus's shadow. Not Megatron's, not Primus's, not Unicron's. He wasn't intimidated by any powerful leader before him, any great leader, compassionate leader, or even completely mental leader. He didn't aspire to be anyone except himself.  
The only shadow he'd never admit to living in was his own, tainted with a slight regret and 'what could have been?'. 

~~~

It's definitely all your fault.


End file.
